I got this email this afternoon . . . and fell off my chair. Is there no end to the arrogance of the Chamber of Commerce . . . remember that study they released, where they botched simple arithmetic and made all kinds of erroneous assumptions . . . the report that was so laughable on its face that it was embarrassing that they ever let it see the light of day . . . those same folks are now having “issues” with a report put out by the Healthy Families, Healthy Cities campaign. Here’s the e-mail . . . .
Members of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce have heard many claims from the Healthy Families, Healthy City Coalition and others on mandatory paid sick leave. HFHC has released a 3-page report from the Economic Policy Institute which provides some employment and benefits data, but does not provide the level of detail needed to fully understand who it would impact in the City of Madison and surrounding communities.
Therefore, we’ve sent a list of questions designed to clarify the issue and add meaningful information to ongoing discussions. We hope that the answers received will also be useful to you and other public officials as you make your decision on this important issue.
Sincerely,
DeloraDelora Newton
Director of Public Policy
Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce
Ummmm . . . . before they start demanding answers to questions . . . shouldn’t they answer a few of the questions put to them about that piece of propaganda “Chicken Little Report” crap they put out . . .
Well, at least the Healthy Families, Healthy Cities folks will try to answer the questions to the best of their ability and try to add to the conversation, unlike the Chamber of Commerce who seems to care more about whipping the business community into a frenzy and putting out propaganda based on flawed studies than helping solve important public policy issues.
I mean seriously, how many of their members don’t offer paid time off that can be used for sick leave? Is this really an issue for their members? Are their members the “bad eggs” in the community who force sick employees to come to work? If so, can I get a list of restaurants and bars and other places of public accommodation that are members of the Chamber of Commerce and have sick employees coming to work . . . I think I’ll avoid them during the flu season . . .
